The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive is a complicated piece of EU legislation designed to regulate the management, administration and marketing of Alternative Investment Funds or AIFs (which includes investment companies). Since it was brought in all investment companies have had to decide who is the manager or AIFM – a difficult decision for some funds. Self managed funds have tended to opt for being the AIFM. One major change was the need to appoint an independent depositary. Complying with the legislation has pushed up costs for AIFs a little but it is not obvious yet what the benefits are for shareholders